A Hellborn Freeman
by earthrise
Summary: Freedom can mean many things. What will it mean for Xander? A BtVSHalfLife crossover
1. Prologue

Disclaimer I own neither Gordon Freeman, Black Mesa, Half Life, BtVS, nor do I own Xander.

A Hellborn Freeman

Prologue:

A Strange Occurrence in the Library

_Half-Life_

_I am a scientist._

_I have spent my life in the pursuit of science._

_Yet somewhere deep within my spirit, within my dreams, is a warrior._

_One who fights demons._

_Who is he?_

_I am Gordon Freeman._

_I have a Half-Life._

- Penned by Gordon Freeman, day before the Black Mesa incident.

Xander and Willow were working studiously in the library. Nothing unusual about that. What was unusual, was the presence of two shiny hardcover physics textbooks instead of the normal antiquated tomes.

"You see, Xander, the nucleus of the atom has a positive charge and its attraction the the negative electrons gives it - Xander! Are you paying attention?"

"Erm... no Wills, I wasn't. Where'd Giles go anyway?"

"He's over there. And since when do you call him Giles in the library?"

"I don't know, calling him G-man just gives me a bad feeling today."

"Oh. Well lets get back to work-"

"Look Willow, I'm just not smart enough to understand it. Or a physicist. I wish I was, though."

Unbeknownst to Giles, Willow, or Xander, two figures were looking into the library.So he wants to be a smart physicist? Be careful what you wish for my boy thought Anyanka as she whispered "Done".

She was unaware of the smirking man wearing an immaculate suit standing behind her before she teleported away.

The man smirked again, and a soldier and hyena cried out to no one as Xander disappeared in a flash of green electricity.


	2. Ch 1 Freedom

A Hellborn Freeman

Chapter One

Freedom

Green electricity arced across a previously empty space in a Seattle alley. Rats scurried away, but more than one was burnt to a crisp behind the dumpster at Rita's Chicken Kitchen. As the bolts faded away, the body of a young man still in his teens appeared.

The young man slept on.

As the sun rose, a few stray rays fell upon his eyelids, and they fluttered open.

He gazed uncomprehendingly forward for a few seconds, and jumped to his feet to look for any nearby hostiles, before his mind caught up to his body's reaction.

'Why am I looking for hostiles?' he thought.

Realization hit him like a brick.

He shoved his hand in his back pocket and it came up empty. No wallet, no money, and no idea where or who he was.

'I can fix one of these problems immediately, seeing as I'm in a city.'

He walked out of the sunlit alleyway, and began walking along the street, and found an abandoned paper on a nearby bench. Its title proudly declared it to be the Seattle Times.

'Where to now? I've obviously been through some kind of trauma.'

A large sign for the Emanuel hospital presented itself as an answer.

Walking in, he caught a glimpse of a large mirror. For a fleeting moment, he thought he caught a glimpse of a soldier with intense green eyes, but dismissed it as a lingering effect of whatever caused his amnesia.

The receptionist, once he reached her, was understanding of his dilemma.

"We need to call you something young man. John Doe just doesn't work with a strapping youngster like yourself." The older woman's eyes misted slightly. "How about we call you Gordon?"

Thus the young man once known as Xander Harris began a new life.

... 3 months later

The young man sat in a room talking with Dr. Liah, or as he called her, Li.

"Gordon, you've been staying at my place and working here at the hospital for 3 months now."

"How could I forget?" he said, quietly as always, but with bitter amusement, and a hint of a cackle at the end.

Dr. Liah laughed dryly.

"If only we could measure that humor of yours with an instrument, we'd know who you were in an instant, Gordon"

Gordon said nothing, content to allow her to continue. Her ice blue eyes locked with his green eyes, setting behind identical square lenses.

"You need to put your past behind you. Look at your scars- I've never seen someone with so many not from a bad situation. You've done wonderful work here at the hospital, and I've seen some of the things you study in the library. Dr. Antons hasn't had a major lab accident since you started helping him- that's a sure sign of greatness. You deserve more than just a cursory first name Gordon- you're going to go down in history!" Dr. Liah had worked herself into a rant.

Gordon placed a hand on her shoulder, pausing her lecture.

"Freeman" he said.

"What?"

"I am a free man. Who I was and what happened to me doesn't matter anymore. I am Gordon Freeman."

AN

There you go! Chapter 1 is up, and now you see the premise behind the story. Hopefully.

Thanks to my reviewers! Please review!


	3. Ch 2 Meeting Li

Meeting Li

AN: This chapter is a flashback, beginning immediately after the secretary christens our friend Gordon.

Gordon smiled at the secretary.

"Gordon... I like that name."

In the waiting room, the TV no one was watching flickered briefly, showing a strange suited man. The man smirked, and the picture returned to normal.

The receptionist directed him to wait for a few more minutes, which he did, before being bustled off to a room by a busy nurse.

Gordon took in his new surroundings- an uncomfortable hospital cot, which he was seated upon smelled of fresh antiseptic. What most caught his attention, was a pile of old tattered medical books in a corner.

"I might as well do something to pass the time," Gordon murmured, picking up one of the largest tomes. Idly he wondered why he wasn't concerning himself more about his amnesia. Inwardly he shrugged.

"I am who I am, no matter who that is."

With that thought, he began reading, translating the Latin roots of the anatomical terms easily.

After an hour of reading and cross referencing terms in the anatomy textbook, he felt he had a fairly decent grasp of the musculoskeletal system.

Just as he was about to turn to a new section, the door to the room opened and a woman of Asian descent walked in him. Her striking blue eyes took Gordon in from head to toe from behind thick-framed square glasses.

Her inspection complete, she held out her hand to shake hers.

"Hello Gordon, I'm Dr Liah. Eloise said that you came here with amnesia?"

"Yes." Gordon placed the book he had been reading aside. The title, _Gray's Anatomy_, did not go unnoticed by the doctor.

"It's safe to say you're either a sharp one or you were bored out of your mind," Dr. Liah said and grinned widely.

"I don't know. Only one section really appealed to me -"

"The nervous system?" interrupted Dr. Liah.

"Surprisingly no. The musculoskeletal system, if you can believe it."

"Ah well. Let's see what's wrong with you. Off with your top." This was said with a mad glint that should have been accompanied by the shrill laughter of a stereotypical mad scientist.

Gordon raised an eyebrow.

"Aren't you going to ask me any health related questions at all first?"

"Hmm. You're the first person who's caught me out on that, and you're amnesiac. I think we can definitely say there's nothing wrong with you in the intelligence department. I'd like to get down some stats to work with though."

Gordon nodded and shucked off his fraying t-shirt.

Dr. Liah raised an eyebrow. She then set her stethoscope down, and gestured at him.

Gordon looked questioningly back at her.

Li, as he began to think of her, had pointed again at his torso. Gordon looked down and saw what she was likely referring to. Scar upon scar marred his skin. In fact, there were even a few on his arms that he hadn't noticed.

Dr. Liah stepped up to him, closely examining the scars, giving commentary.

"These look like claw marks" she said while prodding gently at his back.

"This here is an acid burn if I've ever seen one" indicating a patch near his shoulder, and her gaze moved toward his neck"

"Either you play with barbecue forks too much, or someone tried to play Dracula with your neck."

"These look similar to knife wounds although they could be claw marks as well. These are fresher than the rest." She went on for some time in this manner before grabbing her stethoscope again.

"So what's the verdict Li?" He grinned. Dr. Liah glared at him for a moment, then laughed, before her face and strange blue eyes turned serious again.

"My guess Gordon, is that you probably are better off the way you are now. You've had a traumatic life"

Dr. Liah completed her examination and aside from a slight myopia, or nearsightedness, Gordon was a perfectly healthy individual.

"Tell you what Gordon. I'm friends with the university's physics professor, I think he has a spare room in his house. As for work, you can do odd jobs here at the hospital."

"Sounds good."

Another thank you to my reviewers! You inspired me to not abandon this story!


	4. Ch 3 Burnt Pancakes

Of Burnt Pancakes and Lead Lined Spare Rooms

AN: OK, so this is a continuation of the the flashback that was the previous chapter. I decided I need to give more background before he heads to college. Sorry about the long delay!

Gordon was surprised to learn that he had the same eyeglass prescription as Li, and as such had inherited her spare office pair, which had the same distinct thick square lenses.

Li had offered to give Gordon a lift to her friends house after her shift, and he accepted. As soon as Li started the engine, he knew something was different about it besides its odd looks.

"What's different about this car?"

"It uses a combination of electrical and gas power to increase efficiency. The main computer controls the ratio for optimum mileage,"

"Hmm. How does it deal with energy lost during breaking?"

"It actually has an electronic breaking system. There are coils and magnets around the axle, and if they are connected in a certain manner they will produce current which increases the magnetic field, and resists movement."

As they continued their conversation on the attributes of Dr. Liah's car, Gordon felt his eyes begin to droop, and his answers to her queries became gradually more unintelligible, until he stopped responding altogether.

Dr. Liah smiled. Her young friend had nodded off to sleep despite his interest in their discussion of her car. She nearly missed the next stop sign when she realized she had forgotten to call Dr. Antons and ask about the spare room he had.

Li pulled off to the side of the road and stepped out of the car to make the call—it wasn't necessary, she knew, but she didn't want to disturb Gordon.

"Hello Dr. Antons, it's Dr. Liah,"

"Good evening Li, how are you doing today?"

"I'm doing just fine. By the way, you're no longer the only one who uses that infernal nickname."

"Ah, I have competition."

"Anyway, your 'competition' is currently called Gordon. He's an amnesiac who woke up near the hospital, and I was wondering if he could stay in your spare room?"

"Err... I'm afraid the room is currently uninhabitable at the moment."

"What do you mean uninhabitable? If it's messy I can help you clean it up."

"Well- it's not _messy_ per se. I was bringing home one of my isotope experiments to work on. What I hadn't noticed was that the shielding was cracked. I dropped it accidentally, and it all fell off and spilled onto the bench. Rather than expose myself to gamma radiation I ran out of the room and shut the door."

"Wait, so you were using your spare room as a radiation laboratory? And don't gamma rays pass through wood and concrete?"

"Yes they do, but I fortunately had the foresight to line the room with lead. Rather expensive but worth it now in my opinion. And since the isotope I was using has a relatively short half-life, I'll be able to clean it up in a few years without risk."

Dr. Liah shook her head.

"I'm not going to lecture you on lab safety. That is supposed to be paramount you know. You'll probably just do the same thing in a few years after you clean it up. I guess I'll put Gordon up at my place then."

"Yes, yes, that would be best. After all your maternal clock is ticking. Bye!" With that parting shot, Dr. Ben Antons hung up the phone.

"Urrgh!" growled Dr. Liah. "I'll get you for that or my name isn't Xiang Do Liah!"

As she got in the car again, though, she realized he really was right. "I shouldn't kid myself- I'm getting older, and I am partly responding to a desire to be a mother, if only for a little while."

"Well, at least I won't have to go through labor or change any diapers" she mused quietly aloud. "It really just feels right giving him a home, but will he want one?"

Her musings were broken as her house came into view sooner than she had anticipated. She pulled into the driveway, and looked over him one more time. A line of drool was making its way down the corner of his mouth. Li couldn't help it—she burst out laughing at the sight. Gordon's eyes snapped open, and every muscle in his body tensed briefly.

"You alright there Gordon? Sorry about startling you, but you were drooling in your sleep," said Dr. Liah.

Gordon had calmed down within a few seconds of waking up, and after detecting no immediate threat, responded to her question.

"I'm fine now, just a little bit jumpy I suppose."

"That's fine. I'm afraid to say Dr. Antons didn't have that spare room anymore, so I figured I would put you up at my place. You don't mind do you?"

"Not at all. Are you sure you want to put up with me though?"

Dr. Liah gave Gordon a look.

"Yes, come help me set up the guest room. It'll be just about bedtime by the time that's done."

It took the better part of a few hours, but cleaning up her guest room was much faster than waiting for Antons' isotopes to decay.

Gordon awoke to the smell of something burning. He jumped out of bed, following the smell until it led him to the kitchen, where Dr. Liah had apparently attempted to make pancakes.

Dr. Liah was wafting smoke out the kitchen window when she noticed Gordon come rushing in. She grimaced and said "I think that cereal sounds like a good idea, don't you?"

Gordon just laughed, and gave her a big grin. He had found a home.

AN: Thats it for this chapter, next one might take a while but not nearly so long. Thanks for the reviews! Those were what finally got me to finish this chapter.


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